ASU made right move honoring former baseball coach Pat Murphy

Feb. 15, 2014 - former ASU head baseball coach Pat Murphy waves next to his son, Kai Murphy, 13, and ASU athletic director Ray Anderson (right) as Murphy is honored before the ASU and Baylor baseball game at Packard Stadium.

As an outsider late to the party, I long have struggled to understand how an Arizona State baseball program with such great tradition could also be defined by so much divisiveness.

What happened at Packard Stadium on Saturday afternoon was a positive step toward unifying the past.

ASU honored former coach Pat Murphy and many of his players from his 1995 to 2009 reign before the baseball team’s game against Baylor. It is the first of seven themed weekends celebrating Packard Stadium before the program moves to Phoenix Municipal Stadium next season.

“It’s a great feeling,” Murphy said after the celebration. “What President (Michael) Crow and the athletic department have done. ... This gesture has meant the world to me. I feel welcome.”

Murphy was a terrific coach who led the Sun Devils to four College World Series appearances and saw 27 of his players compete in the major leagues. He was forced to resign following an NCAA investigation that lead to probation.

He is one of a trio of highly regarded former coaches, along with Bobby Winkles and the late Jim Brock, who each seemed to have a faction of loyalists who didn’t get along with the others.

ASU has been making a concentrated effort during the past year to “galvanize the tradition,” Murphy said. It’s a great move.

Each of the three former head coaches, along with the Packard family, will have monuments at Municipal Stadium honoring their legacy. …

Murphy was recently named the manager of the San Diego Padres’ Triple-A Chihuahuas. …

I was sad to hear about the passing of Brandon Rodd, a former ASU lineman who played with the Sun Devils from 2004 to 2007 and recently had been diagnosed with cancer. The disease had spread rapidly and on Thursday he suffered a heart attack during treatment.

Rodd, 28, was as nice a guy as I’ve been around in college football, quick with a smile and always grateful to do an interview, often joking about how nobody ever wanted to talk to linemen. He started all 36 games he appeared in and was a four-time recipient of Pac-10 Conference All-Academic honors. …

I’ve always believed nobody has a better perspective of athletes than those who work daily around them.

Mark Zimmer, ASU’s head equipment manager who has been with the university for more than two decades, told me this about Rodd:

“I would be hard pressed to find a nicer, more genuine, personable, caring person than Brandon Rodd. He was a ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ guy. I remember when his eligibility was done, he thanked us for everything we did.

“He was never bigger than the program, never bigger than you.” …

One of my favorite stories from the Winter Olympics I discovered on Olga Korbut’s Facebook page.

The great gymnast, who won four gold and two silver medals for the Soviet team at the 1972 and ’76 Olympics, was in Sochi for the opening of the Winter Games when she found a lost cellphone on a boardwalk near the Black Sea. She kept it in case the person called.

The woman did and arranged to meet Korbut at a hotel. The woman, who was from Georgia of the former Soviet Union, was in awe and disbelief when she realized she was face to face with one of her nation’s great sports heroes. She cried when Korbut signed a picture for her. What a great story the woman has to share. …

Korbut is now a resident of Scottsdale. She is a pioneer for female athletes and elevated interest in women’s gymnastics to a giant level. I thought she would have been a great choice to light the Olympic torch. …

I was impressed watching ESPN commentator Bill Walton interacting with ASU and Arizona players before Friday’s men’s basketball game. Walton’s unique style of commentating is not everyone’s cup of tea but I like his enthusiasm and knowledge and find his tangents amusing, particularly because the great Dave Pasch reins him in in an entertainment way. …

Another member of the Walton family will be on the air Sunday. Former Arizona standout Luke Walton makes his commentator debut at 1 p.m. on Fox Sports 1 for the Oregon-Oregon State game. He will be paired with play-by-play man Aaron Goldsmith for the national telecast. …

Parting tweet: “Seeing a lot of ‘relax on Oshie, it was only prelims.’ Because beating Russia in Sochi, converting 4 of 6 SO attempts is soooo ordinary #USA” — Greg Wyshynski, editor of the Puck Daddy blog on Yahoo Sports, on Team USA phenom T.J. Oshie and his standout performance in a men’s hockey victory over Russia.

Parting quote: “Jermaine Marshall did an outstanding job. He made, I think, three shots in a row, two 3s and a two, eight consecutive points. I give him a lot of credit. He is a phenomenal player.” — Arizona’s Sean Miller, on ASU’s guard who scored 29 points, eight in overtime, in the Sun Devils’ victory over their rivals.

Reach Boivin at paola.boivin@arizonarepublic.com and follow her on Twitter at Twitter.com/Paola Boivin. Listen to her streaming live on “The Brad Cesmat Show” on sports360az.com every Monday at 10:30 a.m.

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